Ever since its late May 2023 commissioning, anticipation had been growing around the Dangote Oil Refinery over when it would finally begin production and now it seems that the day is close. The refinery looks like it is just an inch closer to doing that following confirmation by a company executive.

It is expected that test runs will likely start at the 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) facility before this week expires.  If that happens as planned, it would be occurring following the receipt of its sixth crude cargo on Monday, according to a Reuters report.

So far, the refinery has 6 million barrels of crude in its stock, with the latest delivery being the 1 million barrels of oil from the Agbami field in the Niger Delta.

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It had taken up to seven months before the plant could receive its first supply back in December, and that has been an awakening of some sort that made the managers know that they cannot depend on one sole supplier.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) did not quickly fulfil its supply pledge to the refinery because of other commitments and that slowed down its production start date quite a bit. For the time being, the initial problems that hindered the plant from starting production have been relegated to the past based on insider information.

Now that all the tools have been gathered, what is next is to “start up the crude distillation unit” according to a Dangote Oil Refinery spokesperson who interacted with Reuters. Turning on the unit’s switch is what is going to happen this week. This is considered a crucial step that would open room for limited “saleable products” to emerge.

The test run phase is expected to see the refinery limit its output to 350,000 bpd, at least for a start. Then later in the year 2024, the chances are high that it would reach full capacity.

“Saleable products”, says the spokesperson, “will start coming from the first week itself.”

Then it should be expected that “the volume will be limited and the variety of saleable products will also be limited and it will start building up, as each major department gets commissioned.”

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.